Free Marijuana Girl by N. R. De Mexico

her--would protect her. Frank was strong and able and adult. He was already a father, the very symbol of adulthood. He was successful, mature.
    Tony said nothing.
    "What's the matter with you?" she demanded.
    He put the car in motion, driving down Randolph Road like a man escaping demons. At Central Avenue he forced the rebellious vehicle around the curve with a mad squealing of tires on the macadam.
    After that, the convertible shot through the moonlit darkness, a thunderbolt of whistling winds and whirring motor in the silence of the night. Past the big, silent houses on Central Avenue, past the recurring streetlamps, past the end of the macadam where the street became a highway and turned to concrete paving, past the new development in South Paugwasset.
    "Tony!" she said. "Where are you taking me?" In the dim lights from the dashboard, his face was brewing a storm of violence. "Answer me!" Still the car sped on. "Tony, you stop this car right this minute."
    No answer.
    "If you don't let me out of this car, I'll ... I'll ..." Sudden hysteria gripped her. She caught at the doorhandle, pressed downward and tried to force it open against the flying wind-stream. Tony reached over with one hand, not taking his eyes from the road, and caught her wrist with steely fingers, pulling her back into the car. Then he reached past her and pulled the door to full latch. After that, as though nothing had interrupted him, he drove forward into the night, faster and faster, until the whipping airstream lashed Joyce's unfastened hair down in stinging blows against her face. Suddenly she dropped her face into her hands, and sobs jerked at her shoulders.
    "What are you doing, Tony?" she wailed. "Please, Tony."
    Then he stopped the car, pulling it up sharply like a horse that is forced to rear, on the shoulder of the road.
    The silence, after the roaring of wind and motor, was poignant, almost unbearable. Then, one by one, the night-sounds of the country insistently made themselves heard. Crickets in the tall grass that bordered the highway. A nightbird "hooooo-ed" in the distance, and somewhere ahead a late train on the Long Island railroad clicked its electric way over an untidy roadbed. Water gurgled faintly through a culvert, and leaves, lightly displaced in the gentle breeze, rustled softly.
    Tony drew a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, offered it to Joyce and, when she refused, lit one for himself.
    The girl stared at his grim face, she was frightened. Tony was never like this.
    "Joyce," he said, suddenly, "are you in love with Burdette?"
    She stalled, "What?"
    "I asked if you are in love with--with that editor?"
    "Don't be silly." Was that the right tone? Should she have said: Don't be ridiculous? Or: What are you talking about?
    "He's a lot older than you are, Joyce." He wasn't saying it flatly. His voice was flat, but something underlay the flatness, as though he were keeping, by a tremendous effort, from breaking into sobs.
    "Oh, stop talking like a child."
    "I'm your age, Joy. If I'm a child, so are you."
    "Girls mature earlier than boys."
    "I've heard that before. It all depends on which girls, what boys."
    "You'd better stop this nonsense and take me home."
    "No, Joy. This is too important for us to just shrug off. If I find out that you're--you know I saw you last Friday with Frank."
    "I don't care what you saw, and don't you dare threaten me."
    "I'm not threatening you, Joy; I'm just telling you what I'm going to do if things turn out the way I suspect."
    "You are absolutely the stupidest boy I've ever met."
    "Keep it calm, Joy. We're not fighting. We're just clearing up some confusion."
    Desperately she wished that Frank were here. Frank was a man, full-grown and protective. Strong, wise. He loved her and would defend her from--from this kid who had rejected her when she had needed him. She forgot that it was she who had really done the rejecting. "Well, let's clear it up then," She felt so much older and stronger than